On the Syrian presence in Lebanon
Lebanon-Syria, Politics, 4/2/2001

Former Lebanese defense minister Mohsin Dalloul has stressed that Syria has decided to quit from Lebanon, but several Lebanese forces besides the US prevent her from leaving, and this is due to the fact that Syria's role in Lebanon has not finished yet and that Syria still has many things to do to prevent the eruption of differences.

In an exclusive interview with the Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am issued on Sunday, Dalloul added that what happened with the Maronite Patriarch Sfeir in the US means that Syria's role in Lebanon has not finished yet ( when high ranking US officials refused to meet with Sfeir).

He indicated that what is taking place and said about this matter is because of the Lebanese, rather that the Syrians, " because the Lebanese do not know what they do want," and an evidence on that " once we want Syria to be a market for us and in other times we distort Syria's image and accuse it of causing economic and agricultural recession for us. In our agricultural agreements we say the Syrian undermine our production because of smuggling their commodities to Lebanon, which is an untrue matter."

He explained that Lebanon had two agreements with Egypt and Jordan which are behind the crisis on production " and no body talks about these two agreements because what is wanted is to distort the image of Syria." He stressed " it is wrong to hold Syria our personal faults," noting that the Syria laborers in Lebanon carry out work that the Lebanese can not.

Previous Stories:
  Al-Hariri and the file of the Syrian- Lebanese relations   (3/28/2001)
  Lahoud- Khouri discuss Syrian- Lebanese cooperation   (3/23/2001)
  Syrian source denies Syrian re-deployment in al-Shouf   (3/21/2001)

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